We leave Phnom Penh and travel northeast to spend New Year’s Eve and a couple of days in the charming town of Kratie. Kratie is a small town in Cambodia’s northeast of around 50,000 along the Mekong River. It has French influenced architecture remaining, as the town was spared bombing during the Vietnam War.
En route, we travel through the town, Skun. This town is infamously known as “spiderville” where a local delicacy can be tasted, roasted tarantula. I did not plan on trying the tasty arthropod, but, when in Rome! I first let the live tarantula crawl on my shirt.
Sophie, our guide, tastes it first. Sophie seems to be a reasonable guy. The fact that he is eating it is a good sign to me, although the belief is that locals develop tolerances to certain illnesses born from food. So I start in on the roasted one. First a leg, a little crunchy, brittle. Then the body. Round, soft, a bit mushy and chewy. Sort of like a candy caramel, at least the texture. A beer would help to wash it down, but it is only 9 am. But no worries, our driver bought ten more to eat with beer to bring in the New Year!
The market also has fresh cashews from area farms. I choose these instead of more bugs. The market also has crickets, silk worms and scorpion to eat! Sophea passes on these, so I will too! The “tarantula girls” seem like they enjoy sharing these delicacies with the patrons. They are all smiles!
Our next stop is Kompong Cham where we arrive a bit later in the morning and visit the sacred hills of Phnom Pros and Phnom Srei. The monkeys are the entertainment here. Snacks are sold here, bananas for the monkeys. The monkeys seem to know the tourists, as we are approached. They like our SUV. When our driver tries to get the monkey off the car, the monkey has none of it. He starts to go toward the driver and bears teeth. All the driver had to do is “show” a slingshot and the monkey backs off!
Another monkey is very interested in a cycle helmet. I think he is trying to figure out how to put it on. Either that or he wants to go for a ride. Smart creatures!
We travel a bit from here and end up at an ancient temple called Banteay Prey Nokor. Even though it is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site, the temple nearly seems abandoned and not maintained. This actually adds to its charm a bit. Terrific, there are no other tourists in sight.
This is a an 11th century complex and temple built from sandstone and laterite. It has a colorful temple set in its central courtyard. There are some intricate carvings at this temple and the interesting contrast between the Hindu past and the Buddhist present.
There are burn marks on some of the sides of the temple where in the 1970s the Khmer Rouge tried to burn the temple. But the temple is made of sandstone and volcanic rock. The volcanic rock of course does not burn well. We met a couple sweet elderly ladies that take care of the temple who gave us good blessings for the New Year.
We cross the Sien Kizuna bridge over the Mekong built by the Japanese and opened in 2001. It was the first bridge over the Mekong in Cambodia, connecting east and west.
For a couple of hours we travel through the rural countryside and village after village. Many of the houses are built high on stilts, a common Cambodian style. Many or most of them are old and wooden. The roads are rough. Not much wider than one lane and very dusty. Some are dirt roads. Many types of crops are grown here. This is certainly another unique place in the world!
It’s the late afternoon and we arrive in Kratie and the mighty Mekong River. We board a boat and venture out to the middle of the river to see the freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins,, an endangered species, unique to this part of the world. We see several pods of the dolphin as the sunset begins over the Mekong. They look similar to a beluga whale, but are closely related to the killer whale. Such a beautiful amazing scene! it’s about an hour before sunset when we finish and the colors are terrific.
We head back to Kratie and check into our hotel, shower up and prep to head out for New Year’s Eve, with our driver and guide in this quiet town.
We choose local food for our New Year’s Eve dinner and Cambodia beer. For an appetizer, we try the dried beef! Excellent with the beer and a pepper sauce. We round out dinner with a lemongrass chicken, stir fried vegetables in fish sauce, and fried rice.
We venture from here to look for a bit of New Year’s Eve cheer. Our driver says he likes whisky, so we stop in a small place on the Mekong called the Red Setting Sun. Jim Beam or Jack Daniels are the “bourbon” choices. Three JD on the rocks and a gin and tonic, nine dollars! I am told by Sophea that this is expensive.
The bar is right across the street from the Mekong River and an outdoor New Year’s celebration with live music, a stage, dancing, food and drinks. Of course, we join in be fun till just after midnight! Happy New Year!
New Years Day 2017
The morning of New Year’s Day 2017 is not too bad after just a few Cambodia Beer! We wake up with Internet, but no water. So interesting in these rural areas, so little material things, but usually TV and cell phones! The water eventually returns less than an hour later.
After a good American style breakfast we are on our way to start off 2017 with a little exercise, a bike ride along the Mekong and through a couple very small villages. It is a beautiful winter day in Cambodia, clear, sunny, and a forecast for 90 degrees!
We embark on our journey by walking down 100 steps to the Mekong, where we board the local ferry. The ferry is a small wooden boat, with what looks like a car engine that is used to motor us across the Mekong to an island in the middle of the river, Koh Trong. As we are sitting cozily next to our mates on the boat, Tracey starts to survey our options for life vests. Three for about 25 passengers. Before we leave, the boat mate drops in about six more vests for good measure. It’s not a long ride, but the currents would sure give you a run for your money if you had to swim.
We arrive safely to a “dock” that is on the edge of what looks to be the Sahara Desert. And it is beautiful, amazing. Never thought one day I would be walking along the sandy shores of the Mekong river delta.
We pick the bikes up a few hundred steps off the water, which are at a shop which looks basically like old wooden shed or structure. The bikes are in the front. Like many “homes” there is a shop in the front and living quarters behind.
The path is sometimes concrete but often dirt and narrow in spots. The bikes are old and not well-balanced, so it makes it challenging when passing the occasional motorbike. The motorbikes are often loaded with some type of cargo as just about anything and everything is transported by this method.
The countryside is beautiful. It follows the Mekong river on one side and many wooden stilt homes on the other. Rice, vegetables, fruits, even tobacco are grown here.
We make a stop at one shop/home that sells some food, drinks and ice. The lady of the house cuts us fresh pomelo and serves us ice coffee, cold tea, and even hot tea.
We continue our bike trip seeing more of the Mekong and its “beaches”, children playing, and small horses being ridden or pulling carts along the way. It’s a beautiful sunny day so the colors are spectacular.
This area and the locals were apparently protected by the US during the Vietnam war. Unfortunately, we are told this is an area where unexploded devices or landmines existed and some were hurt or killed, mainly farmers working the fields. We heard similar stories throughout our Vietnam travels.
We arrive back at the ferry landing after walking across the sandy delta. We await the ferry where we sit in one of the old boats along the river and our safe journey to the other side. The day is beautiful, unreal, surreal.
Our lunch and dinners are local food. We are enjoying the flavors here especially the curries. The amuk is delicious, fish soup, curry soup and fresh vegetables.
Kompong Thom
Today starts early with “chanting” beginning around 4:30 am and continuing nonstop for at least an hour, maybe to sunrise. Then a little after 5 am, some singing begins, along with the chanting! The two “vocals” are not harmonizing. We are told later this is all part of a wedding ceremony that lasts a couple of days.The day is mostly driving with a few stops. We are heading to Kompong Thom. It is a small town that is usually a midway stopover point for those traveling from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap.
The ride is about three hours through many small villages and beautiful countryside. We make one stop for a snack, sticky rice in bamboo. It has beans in it and I am guessing a bit of coconut or coconut milk. Delicious! The area is also a large cashew producer.
We make a stop at a small shop/home and use the bathroom. A small wooden structure like the outhouses of Appalachia but with a squat toilet and a bucket of water. We walk through the families home/lean to/hanging laundry to get to it. Very gracious of them. Whatever it takes!
One more stop on the way, a rubber tree plantation. Here the trees are grown that produce the latex. The trees are tapped into, with a small bowl placed underneath. The bowls are collected and buckets then filled. The buckets are then transported to a factory near Phnom Penh for use in tire production.
Our stay is at a new hotel with a nice large pool. So we decide to relax by the pool in the afternoon and have dinner here tonight. We have a curry feast, testing the red and green.
To Siem Reap!
After breakfast in Kompong Thom, we explore the impressive pre-Angkorian capital of King Isanapura from the 6th century, known today as Sambor Prei Kuk. The first major temple city in South-East Asia, the over 100 brick temples of Sambor Prei Kuk are a peaceful contrast to the more touristy ones at Angkor we will see later.
We explore the main temples here, including Prasat Tao with its elaborately coiffured lions and Prasat Sambor, with its crumbling sanctuaries. The area was also occupied by the Khmer Rouge is the 1970s. The US aircraft bombed this archeological site, leaving craters near the temples. Land mines were cleared in 2008, but caution signs remain to stay on trails.
After lunch, we continue northwest on National Highway 6. This was an old Angkor road and we stop in Kompong Kdei to see one of the ancient Angkor bridges that were built to span the rivers. Spean Praptos or the Praptos Bridge has more than 20 arches and is a spectacular sight, reinforcing the impression that the Khmers were like the “Romans of Southeast Asia”.
We arrive in Siem Reap, our home for a few days just around lunch. After we check into our poolside room we have a pleasant lunch across the road at the “Love You” restaurant, served by the pleasant Miss Happy! We are looking forward to a couple of days of relaxation and exploration in Siem Reap!
And a few more pics!
